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Orompoto

Orompoto/Oronpoto
OccupationAlaafin of Oyo

Orompoto (also spelled Oronpoto)[1] was an Alaafin of the Yoruba Oyo Empire.[2][3][4][5] The empire of which she ruled is located in what is modern day western and north-central Nigeria.[6]

History

Orompoto was the sister of her predecessor, Eguguojo.[7] She became the first woman to become "king" of the Oyo in the imperial era, and the first woman since the pre-imperial ruler Yeyeori.[2] Orompoto assumed the throne because there was no male successor within her family at the time.[8] She helped drive the Nupe from Oyo in 1555.[2] Orompoto lived in the 16th century.[6][9]

Orompto was the second Oyo monarch to reign in the new capital of Igboho.[10] Some traditions of the oral record hold that she was miraculously transformed into a man before assuming the throne there.[10]

Orompoto used horses extensively in military battles and may have obtained them from Borgu.[11] She was reportedly masterfully skilled on horseback, and created a specialized order of cavalry officers within her army that were subject to the Eso Ikoyi. The first of its kind, the cavalry was a force to be reckoned with in the various wars with Oyo's enemies.[1] Considered a skillful warrior herself, she is said to have distinguished herself at the Battle of Illayi. While fighting her enemies there, she lost three war chiefs in quick succession, titleholders that are known as Gbonkas in Oyo. The third of them is believed to have fallen with his face locked in an unnerving grin. The enemies thought that he was still alive and was making a mocking gesture, and were overwhelmed by what they considered to be their inability to best the Oyo gbonkas.[12] They abandoned the battlefield thereafter, and the Oyo later claimed victory.

She was succeeded by Ajiboyede.

References

  1. ^ a b Harry George Judge; Robert Blake (1988). World history, Volume 1 (Volumes 3-4 of Oxford illustrated encyclopedia). Oxford University Press (University of Michigan). p. 266. ISBN 9780198691358.
  2. ^ a b c Toyin Falola; Ann Genova (2006). The Yoruba in Transition: History, Values, and Modernity. Carolina Academic Press (University of Michigan). p. 427. ISBN 9781594601347.
  3. ^ Jean Comaroff, John L. Comaroff (1993). Modernity and Its Malcontents: Ritual and Power in Postcolonial Africa. University of Chicago Press. p. 63. ISBN 978-0-226-1143-92.
  4. ^ Oyeronke Olajubu (2003). Women in the Yoruba Religious Sphere (McGill Studies in the History of Religions). SUNY Press. p. 89. ISBN 9780791458860.
  5. ^ Kulwant Rai Gupta (2006). Studies in World Affairs, Volume 1. Atlantic Publishers & Dist. p. 101. ISBN 9788126904952.
  6. ^ a b "Chronology of Oyo Kingdom's Alaafins". Odua Voice. Retrieved February 23, 2018.
  7. ^ Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí (2005). African Gender Studies: A Reader. Springer. p. 178. ISBN 9781137090096.
  8. ^ J. Lorand Matory (2005). Sex and the Empire That Is No More: Gender and the Politics of Metaphor in Oyo Yoruba Religion (Berghahn Series). Berghahn Books. p. 84. ISBN 9781571813077.
  9. ^ Basil Davidson (2014). West Africa Before the Colonial Era: A History to 1850. Routledge. p. 114. ISBN 9781317882657.
  10. ^ a b Matory, James Lorand (2005). Sex and the empire that is no more : gender and the politics of metaphor in Oyo Yoruba religion. Berghahn Books. ISBN 1571813071. OCLC 910195474.
  11. ^ Samuel Johnson, Obadiah Johnson. The History of the Yorubas, From the Earliest of Times to the Beginning of the British Protectorate. p. 161.
  12. ^ Smith, Robert (1965). "The Alafin in Exile: A Study of the Igboho Period in Oyo History". The Journal of African History. 6 (1): 57–77. doi:10.1017/s0021853700005338. ISSN 0021-8537.


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